Thursday, September 30, 2010

At the link below you will find a state by state list of non-profit organizations that are at risk of loosing their non-profit status for failure to file their yearly reports with the IRS. Please take a moment and look at the listing of your state to see if your SCV camp is listed. I made a spot check and noticed some states with SCV camps on the list. I also noticed one reenacting organization as well.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

PRINCETON – Labor Day travelers used to seeing cars, cell phones and shopping centers during their end of summer journeys are seeing something unexpected at one tourist center — a scene from the Civil War.

Reenactors wearing Confederate uniforms and working in a camp like those seen during the Civil War is open for viewing today at the West Virginia Tourist Information Center. Organized by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, West Virginia Division, Southern Brigade Camp No. 1694–Flat Top Copperheads, the camp gives visitors an opportunity to learn more about the daily lives of Civil War soldiers.

As the name states, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, said the camp’s adjacent, Richard Lockhart. Members participate in reenactments and living histories to help educate people about life during the war. At the camp, visitors can learn how soldiers in the field lived their lives; lives that were often difficult.

For instance, Lockhart pointed out that as a captain, he would be able to afford a good uniform and equipment. Privates in the Confederate Army often had to make do with whatever they could bring with them after enlisting or find later during a campaign.

“They lived a hard life,” Lockhart said. “They often didn’t have shoes and rarely had enough to eat. Their clothes weren’t often the best.”

Sometimes after a battle, Confederates in need of shoes or clothes would take them off Union causalities, Lockhart said.

During the Civil War, Mercer County’s residents were mostly for the Confederacy. Approximately 1,100 of the county’s residents enlisted in the Confederate Army.

“And of those, 40 percent were killed in battle,” said Lockhart, who added that he is writing a book about these soldiers. He has located 400 graves representing the approximately 700 men who survived the war.

“There are 150 still left to find,” he said.

Among the equipment visitors can see is a Model 1841 Field Howitzer. Its owner, Bobby Tabor of Narrows, Va., walks over to his cannon and explains that it’s not just a showpiece: It’s a real cannon.

“It can shoot several different things: canister, shot–what most people call a cannon ball–and I can shoot a shell which will explode,” Tabor said.

He goes into the camp and picks about a cylinder made of metal and wood that’s about the size of a small coffee can. Such “canisters” contained 25 metal balls, each about an inch in diameter. It was designed to injure up to 75 people arrayed in three advancing lines. Besides the musket balls inside the canister, pieces of the canister itself added to the projectiles fired at an advancing enemy.

“In desperate need, you could shoot two canisters,” Tabor said.

One of Tabor’s friends, Clate Dolinger, 71, of Pembroke, Va. was ready to leave after giving some outdoor cooking lessons. He took a moment to go through a thick binder of details surrounding a Civil War photograph often seen in Civil War books: three Confederate soldiers who was captured at the Battle of Gettysburg. The men in that photograph–Andrew Z. Blevins, Epharim Blevins–and John R. Baldwin are all Dolinger’s ancestors.

Under a nearby picnic canopy is a collection of bullets, firearms, belt buckles, glassware, knives, artillery shells and other Civil War artifacts.

“This is 31, 32 years of collecting,” said owner Blaine Hypes, 56, of Princeton. He found some of the items himself and purchased others from fellow relic hunters. The bottles and glassware alone came from Confederate and Union camps “up and down the Shenandoah Valley.”

While many of the items a person can still find today are has harmless as belt buckles and bottles–Hypes knew a Princeton man who found a Civil War bottle while digging a fence post–others are still dangerous despite their age. Hypes recalled one collector who was killed while “deactivating” a 30 pound Civil War artillery shell.

“A lot of the ordinance found in the ground is still live, still dangerous even after 150 years. That’s hard to believe, but people are still finding this stuff all the time,” he said.

Hypes looked at his collection. “Every little piece could tell you its own story if it could tell it.”

General Lee explained why he chose to serve with the Confederate Army. He said that he owed allegiance to the “country” of Virginia, which had chosen to join the Confederacy. Like other future Confederate generals and officers, his education at West Point had taught him that states allowed a centralized government only certain powers, and that a state had a right to secede if its citizens believed this move was necessary.

A book used at West Point, titled “The Law of Nations,” taught future generals that “the people have the right to determine how they will be governed,” General Longstreet said. And one cannot accept just certain parts of the “Law of Nations” and reject the rest, he added. It has to be accepted as a whole. Three hundred and six West Point graduates decided to serve with the Confederacy.

Members of the camp also work to show visitors the issues Confederates thought about before deciding to secede from the Union. For instance, Confederates did not make the decision to go to war in a hurried and rash manner, Gen. Jenkins said. For instance, the Jenkins plantation was along the Ohio River, a major route for military traffic if war was declared. Jenkins said that he knew if war came, the “Yankees” would soon be at his front door.

(ATLANTA - 21 September 2010) In conjunction with the launch of events to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the War Between the States, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans will be erecting a 100' flagpole with a Confederate battle flag on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at I-75 Exit 71, just north of Tifton.

The flag raising is part of the ongoing Flags Over Georgia project of the Sons of Confederate Veterans here in the state and is designed to increase awareness of the significant role that Georgia played during the War. Due to the current political climate in America, there is more interest today than any other time in the last hundred years regarding our Confederate Heritage as people attempt to understand the South's stand against an out-of-control federal government.

Earlier this year, the Florida Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans received national attention when they, too, raised a large Confederate battle flag alongside a major expressway in their state.

Georgia Division Commander, Jack Bridwell, had this to say about Saturday's flag raising, "This beautiful Flag signals the start of our celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the War for Southern Independence. We will continue to highlight times, sites, and people over the next 4 years; hopefully the public will join us in this celebration. "

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are also preparing to launch a statewide radio and television campaign with commercials which will educate the public about Georgia's Confederate heritage and role during the War in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the War Between the States.

Interviews or more information about the Sons of Confederate Veterans or the flag raising may be obtained by contacting the Georgia Division at 1-888-SCVinGA or online at www.GeorgiaSCV.com.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The recent Memorial Servicefor Heroes Von Borcke, held in Poland in September, 2010, can be viewed at the following link. The SCV participated in an earlier service, in 2008, where a new CSA grave marker was place on the grave.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

PINE KNOT — To passersby, it may have appeared to be a routine military funeral occurring at Pine Knot Cemetery over the weekend. But a closer inspection would have revealed details not routinely witnessed in more than a 100 years.

On Saturday morning, the Charles Moore VFW Post 5127 joined forces with the Cumberland Brigade of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Kentucky Division to memorialize the grave of James S. Ward, who fought with the “Lynchburg Rifles” during the Civil War.

When VFW member Dan DeLaughter learned that the United States Department of Veterans Affairs could provide military markers for Confederate veterans, he and historian Sam Perry (also a VFW member) set about applying for a stone to mark the only known local grave of a Confederate veteran.

Born on January 10, 1834, in Campbell County, Virginia, Ward was working as a farmer when his home state seceded from the Union in 1861. Ward enlisted in the 11th Virginia Infantry Regiment and was assigned to Company E, popularly known as the Lynchburg Rifles.

The 11th Regiment fought in many battles, including Sayler’s Creek where it is believed that a wounded Ward was captured as a prisoner of war. He wasn’t released until Lee’s surrender in April 1865. After taking an oath of allegiance to the United States Constitution, Ward returned to farming until he moved to Kentucky in the late 1870s to work for the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.

Ward was a trackwalker who kept the rails free from debris until he retired at the age of 90. He died at his home in Pine Knot on March 25, 1932, at the age of 98.

Through two marriages, Ward fathered eight children: Edward (who was posthumously honored last year for his contribution to Army aviation), Minnie, Lula, Alice, Etta, Rosetta, Grace and James W.

Ward’s descendants were among those in attendance at Saturday’s ceremony, which Moses Hamlin of the Cumberland Brigade said would resemble a burial that could have occurred on a Civil War battlefield. The service concluded with a flag presentation to Bill Stephens, a grandson who still lives in McCreary County, and an unveiling of the military marker.

BATON ROUGE, La. – While Texans are fiercely proud their state was once its own republic, and California celebrates the same former status on its flag, relatively few Louisianans know that a group of their forebears overthrew Spanish rule to carve out a tiny, independent nation 200 years ago. With the bicentennial coming up Thursday, historians and descendants of the rebels are hoping to change that.

"It is the most dramatic event in Louisiana history that has been so little recognized," said Sam Hyde, director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. "We have been lost to all the Cajuns and the debauchery of New Orleans, but it is a unique event that had a lasting effect on this area and others."

In the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 1810, 75 armed rebels slipped into the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, and in what was described as a "sharp and bloody firefight," subdued the garrison. They lowered the Spanish flag and raised the Bonnie Blue Flag — a single white star on a blue field — that had been adopted for the new nation they called West Florida.

Three days later the rebels signed a declaration of independence and set up a government for the new nation that historians say included about 4,000 people.

The republic was one of three nations that joined with the United States as it expanded west during the 19th century. The others were the republics of Texas and California.

West Florida achieved its goal — annexation by the United States — 74 days after independence, said archivist Betty Tucker of Zachary, La.

Historians generally agree the republic included 8 Louisiana parishes still known as the Florida Parishes, and those completed what became the state of Louisiana in 1812.

"They were English speaking people, several were Tories, and they were sick of Spain," Tucker said of the rebels. "You had to be Catholic (under the Spanish), they had no rights, no vote. They were planning to join the United States from when they started their secret meetings in 1805," she said.

The rebels had also originally claimed all Spanish territory extending east through Mississippi to the Perdido River, which separates Alabama and Florida. But their ambitious attempt to seize Mobile, Ala., failed, and Hyde said people living in those areas outside of Louisiana never actively rebelled.

On Thursday, ceremonies marking the 200th anniversary of the revolt will be held at Old Fort San Carlos in Baton Rouge and a flag-raising is set at the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse in Covington. On Jan. 10, 2011, the bicentennial of the annexation of West Florida will be celebrated at State Capitol Park in Baton Rouge. Neither Mississippi nor Alabama are planning West Florida commemorations.

West Florida's residents were mostly farmers and tradesmen of Scottish and English descent. Its leaders dealt harshly with opponents to either independence or U.S. annexation.

"Most people think this was all part of the Louisiana Purchase," Hyde said.

Hyde recalled a confrontational phone call from former Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster during the anniversary of the purchase from France in 2003. Foster scolded him for pointing out that the annexation of West Florida was separate.

"He said, the coins are minted, the posters are printed, and from now on the entire state was part of the Louisiana Purchase!" Hyde said.

But the facts say otherwise. When the United States made the purchase in 1803, it was for French Louisiana and the Isle of Orleans. Areas north of Lake Pontchartrain and east of the Mississippi River — which include West Florida — had been Spanish.

Descendants of West Florida's founders are hoping the bicentennial will give the republic its proper place in history.

In 2002, Leila Roberts, great-granddaughter of Fulworth Skipwith, leader of the republic, donated the original copy of the West Florida Constitution to the Louisiana State Archives, said state archivist Ellen Brown. It's been on display at the Capitol this year.

David Norwood is a descendant of Bennett Hilliard Barrow, one of the rebellion leaders. He proudly displays in his home a small table marked by rings from wet glasses, which family lore holds were left by rebels who gathered to plot their rebellion. Next door is the family home, Highland Plantation, built in 1805, where the rebels gathered.

The year 1810 was a bad one for Spain. Not only did West Florida rebel, but the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars sparked revolt in Spanish possessions throughout the Western Hemisphere.

"This is unknown history that is important to the rest of the nation," said David Norwood's wife, Cammie. "It started a rash of rebellions against Spain that stretched from Texas to South America."

Friday, September 17, 2010

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – Barring out-of-court negotiations, which have been unsuccessful so far, a Fredericksburg Circuit Court judge has cleared the way for a trial over the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ (SCV) lawsuit to prevent the city from moving a monument to a cemetery for 51 Confederate soldiers.

At an Aug. 9 hearing, Judge Gordon F. Willis rejected the city’s June 16 motion for summary judgment, which sought to dismiss the suit. No trial date was set.

At issue is a 3.5-foot-high granite stone topped with a bronze plaque listing the 51 Confederate soldiers buried nearby in the unmarked cemetery along Barton Street in front of the former Maury School.

The Confederate monument sits on one corner of a large traffic island where the Fredericksburg Area War Memorial was dedicated in 2008. That memorial honors the dead from the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

According to Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp 1722, they placed the monument on April 16, 2009, at a location designated by city zoning and building officials. The city disputes that the camp was authorized to place the monument.

Two days later the camp hosted a dedication ceremony to which the seven city council members were invited. (See article in June 2009 CWN.)

At the request of the Fredericksburg Area Veterans’ Council (FAVC), which sponsored the war monument, the city council voted in September 2009 to approve a memorandum of understanding with the veterans’ group that included relocating the Confederate monument to an unspecified location.

Camp 1722 was not consulted. The city council’s vote prompted the lawsuit filed last Nov. 19.

The complaint filed by the SCV’s attorney, Patrick M. McSweeney (with McSweeney, Crump, Childress & Temple in Richmond, Va.), stated that the monument was covered by Virginia Code Section 15.2-1812, which protects war monuments from being disturbed once they have been erected. He said it could not be moved by city council vote.

At the recent hearing, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley argued that the power to “authorize and permit” the erection of war monuments in Section 15.2-1812 was a “non-delegable legislative duty.” The city council had to authorize the Confederate monument, which it did not, she said.

Dooley said there were no “issues of genuine fact” in dispute. She asked Judge Willis for a summary judgment, or decision without a trial.

McSweeney said there were material facts in dispute over the delegation of authority by city council to city officials. The function of approving monuments can be delegated by the governing authority, such as the city council, to city officials, and was applicable in this case, the SCV’s lawyer said.

He noted the council did not approve a monument to the 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment’s amphibious assault across the Rappahannock River during the Battle of Fredericksburg. It was erected in 2003 on the city easement on National Park Service property along the river.

He added that the city council did not approve a historical marker placed on the same traffic island in January 2010 that refers to nearby sites, including the Liberty Town African-American neighborhood, the Potter’s Field graveyard and the unmarked Barton Street Confederate cemetery.

Judge Willis questioned McSweeney about the building permit signed by Camp 1722 monument project leader Roy B. Perry Jr. as “authorized agent.” According to McSweeney city officials prepared the building application and advised Perry to sign it.

If the locality can delegate the authority to its officials, who can authorize local officials to authorize a local citizen, like Perry, to act as an agent for the city, Willis asked McSweeney.

“No one has told the building official [who advised Perry] that he broke the law,” McSweeney said.

“Does it require council approval to erect anything on city property?” Willis asked Dooley. She did not respond.

“Can it be done without direct action by city council, or can it be delegated?” Willis asked.

Dooley said that council has authorized Public Works to put up things like stop signs as well as temporary traffic signs. She said she was not familiar with the 7th Michigan monument, having been handed an affidavit about it minutes before the hearing.

Judge Willis asked Dooley whether two city officials, senior planner Erik F. Nelson and his boss, zoning administrator Raymond P. Ocel Jr., had the authority to authorize Perry to seek the building permit for the monument.

Dooley said they did not have the authority to do what they did. “Perry’s building permit is invalid,” she said.

“It is disputed whether Mr. Perry was authorized by the city to build. I think that is a material fact to be determined,” Willis said, denying the city’s motion for a summary judgment.

He added, “Just because the permit was issued doesn’t make it valid.” He said that such a determination was up to the finder-of-fact at a trial.

The judge reminded the parties that at their last court session in March he recommended they use Virginia’s Judicial Settlement Conference Program, where retired judges help parties negotiate cases outside of court.

McSweeney asked if the negotiations were voluntary. Willis said they were, “I’d be happy if it was ordered,” McSweeney replied.

In informal negotiations the city proposed, and Camp 1722 rejected, two alternate locations for the Confederate monument, both much farther from the cemetery it memorializes.

Billing information obtained by Civil War News indicates that the city paid outside attorney Jennifer Parrish, who is assisting Dooley, $14,253.50 for the period March through July 2010. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star in an Aug. 15 editorial questioned whether the legal cost is money well spent and urged the city to let the Confederate monument remain where it is.

CWN reporter Scott C. Boyd is a member of SCV Camp 1722 and assisted with the Confederate Monument project.

Sadie Strickland, 100, died in her Bunnell home shortly before midnight Friday with family and hospice care workers at her side.

"It was something to know Sadie," said Margaret Whitaker -- one of Strickland's few contemporaries at 97 years old and a friend of 33 years. "She always helped people who needed. She was true blue."

Strickland, a member of the prominent Flagler County family, was one of 28 "Real Daughters" -- a surviving daughter of a Confederate soldier. With her death, Florida's number drops to five and North Carolina tops the list of 10 states in the number of women who carry on the legacy, said United Daughters of the Confederacy spokeswoman Gail Crosby.

"They are the direct link to all this history," she said by phone from Richmond, Va. "I love Flagler County best of all Florida, and a lot of it is because of her. We have lost so much when we lose one of these special ladies."

William Mitchell Stone, her father, was 67 years old when Strickland was born (in Pine Grove, Ga.) on Oct. 27, 1909. She shared memories of her father with Crosby.

"Many of the fathers (of the Real Daughters) were older when they were born," Crosby said. "But she had so many memories of him -- following behind him as he worked their small farm."

Strickland married young, said her grandson Marvin Clegg. She and her late husband, Marcus, had their first child when she was 15. They moved from West Florida to Flagler County in 1927.

At one time, the couple owned 30,000 acres, said her son Junior, and made their wealth harvesting turpentine to sell to the Army and Navy during World War II. They also had timber and cattle operations. Numerous roadway easements to widen U.S. 1 and install telephone poles were donated for the betterment of the county, he said.

"Mother Sadie," as family members call her, was left to manage the vast property holdings. They extended from east of Old Kings Roads to the west along County Road 304 toward Haw Creek, and from the southern Flagler areas served by Strickland Road and Durrance Lane as far north as Gopher Ridge near Hastings and Moutrie Creek near St. Augustine.

"She never had a childhood -- she was still young when her husband was killed by poachers," Clegg said. "I think, because of that, she had a childlike wonder about Christmas."

She refused to allow her caregivers to take down her tree or put away her decorations this year, he said. Strickland grew up in an era when an orange was considered a holiday gift and in her later life, like a little girl, adored getting a pretty doll.

"She had a great sense of humor," Clegg said. "On Christmas, we'd always do skits making fun of each other. She let me do one -- Mother Sadie and her rules of the road. She loved big cars and had a pink T-bird followed by a string of Cadillacs. The first of her rules was that the biggest car always has the right of way."

Strickland also made no bones about stopping talk from loved ones when they'd hint her days might be coming to an end.

"It was just this week and caregivers were standing a little too close and said something about when the end comes," Clegg retold the story his brother shared with him. "And she said, 'Yoo hoo,' -- that's what she did to get your attention -- 'Yoo hoo. I'm not gone, yet.' "

Strickland is survived by five children, all living in Flagler County -- Christine Deal, Wilda Hargett, Odell Clegg, M.C. Strickland Jr., and Marvin Strickland -- as well as 16 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Women aided Confederates in Civil War By Johnny Vardeman vardeman1956@att.net

August 8, 2010

The American home front is well known for supporting its fighting men and women in its wars. Local organizations in all wars have prepared bandages, food, stationery, shaving and other personal items especially during World Wars I and II. It continued through the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Many individuals and groups back home send "care packages" to American troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq today.

The tradition might have started during the Civil War. In the South, though times were tough and provisions scarce, ladies aid societies scrounged together what they could to help Confederate soldiers, especially those wounded in action.

The Southern Confederacy newspaper carried lists of donations from all over Georgia. The Atlanta Hospital Association received gifts and distributed them where needed.

An 1862 edition of the paper noted the "ladies of Hall County" had contributed "one box nicely packed with sheets, shirts, etc., one sack of meal, one sack of flour and one jar of butter."

The county's Ladies' Aid Association had collected $50 from Gen. H.W. Riley, $50 from M.W. Brown and $5 from the Rev. J.R. Rives. In addition, Harvey Hall had donated $25 to the effort to aid the sick and wounded of the war.

Other organizations around the state had sent vegetables, fruit, clothes and eggs.

A Whelchel story from the Civil War:

Valentine Whelchel of New Bridge in northwest Hall County enlisted in the Confederate Army even though his father was one of seven delegates who opposed Georgia's secession from the Union. On June 3, 1863, Valentine was trying to recapture some artillery guarded by the 9th Michigan Cavalry at Brandywine. He got into a sword fight with a Union soldier, Louis Metzger, and was slashed on the head and hand. Though wounded, he eventually was able to capture Metzger and sent him to the rear as a prisoner before getting treated for his injuries.

After the war, Whelchel moved to Texas and was looking for a surveyor to survey his farm. He came across his next door neighbor, who turned out to be Metzger, the former Union soldier whom he had fought with and captured. They became best friends and lived side by side for five years until Whelchel returned to Hall County. He left his Texas farm under the watch of Metzger.

Whelchel told the Atlanta Constitution in July 1892, "The politicians made the war while the jeans and butternuts did the fighting. There are no better friends than those who wore the Blue and Gray from 1861 to 1865 fighting the politicians' battles."

Whelchel said he still had the scars to prove his skirmish with Metzger.

Footnote on Whelchel/Wilkie: Hayne Thomas, a Murrayville area historian, says New Bridge once was a post office at Leather's Ford on the Chestatee River. It was important because it was on the main route to the gold fields of Auraria and Dahlonega.

The Wilkies or Whelchels, he said, once owned most of the land on the east side of the Chestatee from Leather's Ford south to Grant's Ford. His neighbor, the late Jim Brown Wilkie, used to joke that the only difference between the Whelchels and the Wilkies was that the Whelchels were the rich ones.

Thelma Little, 84, who grew up about a mile from Wilkie Bridge said Jim Brown told her father that the Whelchel name sounded "high-falutin'," and he was just a plain old country boy who wanted to be called "Wilkie." The Whelchels and Wilkies fell from the same family tree; it was mostly just a difference in pronunciation of the names.

Mrs. Little remembers playing in the Chestatee River before the original Wilkie Bridge was built. She now lives in Walnut Grove subdivision off Price Road. The subdivision was developed on the former farm where she grew up.

Her two older sisters attended Grange Hall School, but the year she was supposed to attend the school it consolidated with Price School into Murrayville. She is seeking information on the old Grange Hall School.

African American Confederate soldier to be honored SaturdayPublished: September 13, 2010

African American Confederate soldier to be honored Saturday

PETERSBURG - The 7th annual Richard Poplar Day Memorial will honor Pvt. Richard Poplar this Saturday during National POW/MIA Recognition Week. The public is invited to this program which will start at 11:30 a.m. at Memorial Hill in Blandford Cemetery.

A Petersburg resident and member of Company H, 13th Virginia Cavalry, Pvt. Richard Poplar was captured alongside other members of his unit as a prisoner of war in July 1863 at Gettysburg. Pvt. Poplar was confined at Fort Delaware for five months and confined at the infamous Point Lookout, Maryland Prison for an additional 14 months. He overcame this peril in a heroic manner that required outstanding courage and sacrifice.

Poplar is recognized by his veteran comrades for providing aid and comfort to his comrades while confined at Point Lookout, including fellow Petersburg residents captured during the Petersburg Battle of the Old Men and Young Boys on 9 June 1864.

In 1886 in Petersburg, Poplar passed away being given a large military funeral and laid to rest with his fellow comrads at Memorial Hill.

The pen that Gen. Robert E. Lee used to help end the Civil War. The elegant uniform he donned that day in 1865. The sword he carried to the momentous surrender of his army.

These three iconic relics of the Confederacy, along with hundreds of other artifacts of the doomed rebellion, soon will be moving from downtown Richmond to a new, $7.5 million museum in Appomattox, about a mile from the farmhouse where Lee surrendered the main Confederate army and effectively concluded the war.

The Museum of the Confederacy -- technically the Confederate Memorial Literary Society -- announced this week that ground will be broken Sept. 23 for its Appomattox site, one of three new locations planned for the 114-year-old repository of Lost Cause artifacts. The museum believes the Appomattox branch, due to open in 2012, is the nation's largest such building project scheduled during the upcoming sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary, of the 1861-65 conflict. Appomattox is about 175 miles southwest of Washington, and 90 miles west of Richmond.

The Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox's groundbreaking will be the latest step in the museum's attempt to bring its striking collection to a broader geographic and demographic audience, and thrive. For more than a century, the museum has been housed in downtown Richmond, the heart and capital of the southern Confederacy.

Four years ago, struggling with falling attendance, financial trouble and logistical constraints, the museum decided to build three new sites and spread its vast collection beyond the confines of its 1976 headquarters in Richmond. Museum attendance is around 45,000 a year, down from a peak of 91,000 in 1991, the year it had an exhibit on slavery, said spokesman Sam Craghead.

The museum will maintain the Richmond site. Some people ask, "Are you leaving Richmond?" S. Waite Rawls III, museum president and a descendant of a soldier in the 41st Virginia regiment, said Thursday. "The answer is: no. We're transitioning from a one-museum site to multiple-site system of museums. . . . We think you've got to take the museum to the people."

The museum has on display only 10 percent of its collection of 20,000 artifacts and 100,000 documents and photographs, Craghead said. Among its holdings are 550 wartime Confederate flags, 300 swords and the 10-foot-long Confederate constitution.

"We can put stuff in three museums and still have plenty . . . left over," Craghead said. The idea was to establish branches near Fredericksburg, Fort Monroe and Appomattox, with each site covering special themes of the war. "The museum at Appomattox will be . . . focused on the end of the war and the reunification of the country," he said. Plans for the other two sites are in the works.

"This is an exciting thing for us," said Appomattox Mayor Paul Harvey. "It's a great compliment to the historical park we already have here . . . It's going to bring out the story of Appomattox even more." The National Park Service operates the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

The museum's expansion also comes with heightened sensitivity over the role of slavery in the war and what historians say was the Confederacy's bloody crusade to maintain it. This year, the governors of Virginia and Mississippi sparked controversy by neglecting or sounding dismissive of the role that slavery played in the war.

The Civil War claimed 600,000 lives, or 2 percent of the nation's population in the 1860s. Historians say that percentage would equal 6 million dead today.

In addition to the Lee artifacts, the Appomattox branch will likely display the uniforms of 12 other Confederate generals who surrendered that day, Craghead said.

The ground breaking ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sept. 23 on Route 24, about a mile and half south of the surrender site.

"It's a big step for us, and it's also a big step for the nation," Rawls said. "Appomattox is a great metaphor for the reunification of the nation."

Thursday, September 9, 2010

John C. Hunton, the first president of the Wyoming Pioneer Association, will be honored with the unveiling of a new confederate grave marker September 10 in Cheyenne.

Before arriving in Wyoming, Hunton served in the Virginia Infantry for the Confederate Army. He served at Harper’s Ferry and Gettysburg, and was in service when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Also, for a time, Hunton was a prisoner of war.

Hunton then traveled to Wyoming Territory where he became a freighter, road house owner, cattleman, community leader and fort sutler.

The Wyoming Pioneer Association originally met in 1884 but wasn’t officially organized until December 1925. The first annual meeting was held September 15, 1926, and Hunton was elected president. However, over the years, Hunton’s grave site was not marked correctly.

Festivities begin at 10 A.M., at the Wyoming National Guard Museum, 624 East Pershing Boulevard. Sharon Field, genealogist and Hunton researcher, will provide a historical background of his life. Also, retired U.S. Army Colonel, Bob Bezek, will share Hunton’s military history.

Following those presentations, the group will travel two blocks to Lakeview Cemetery, 2501 Seymour Avenue for the unveiling of the Hunton grave marker.

Part of the purpose of the Wyoming Pioneer Association includes: to establish a museum (the Wyoming Pioneer Museum in Douglas), to gather and preserve the state history, to perpetuate the names of its early settlers and to locate and mark historical sites.

Monday, September 6, 2010

The next meeting of the General Executive Council is October 16, 2010 at Elm Springs. At this meeting the Budget and Finance Committee will present its recommends on funding requests submitted to the Budget and Finance Committee. The deadline for submitting requests for consideration at the October 16 GEC meeting is September 25, 2010.

The form used to submit funding requests can be found at the link below.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has fired a volley at the proposed casino and hotel complex at the Gettysburg Battlefield.

In a statement released today Commander Michael Givens said "The consideration of placing a casino and entertainment complex at the very edge of the Gettysburg Battlefield is not only unbelievable, it is an affront to all Americans who believe that, in this era of commercialization, there are some unique areas that are so historically hallowed that they must be protected and preserved at all cost in perpetuity."

"The Gettysburg Battlefield is no playground. Every inch of that ground, including the proposed casino site which is on the road within yards of the battlefield is a priceless American treasure. This road was the path taken to mount one of the most crucial battles in world history. It is part of the legacy left to all Americans today, particularly those whose ancestors were participants, North and South."

Commander Givens concluded"To gauge the importance of this sacred ground, consider the casualties on both sides of this single three day battle were greater than the total casualties of the entire duration of the Viet Nam War."

"We, the descendants of those old veterans urge the Pennsylvania Gaming Board and the citizens of Gettysburg to just say no to the playground plans while continuing to protect and preserve one of America's most treasured landmarks."

Friday, September 3, 2010

Resolution abopted at the Anderson Convention offered by Charles Kelly Barrow, Cmdr, Army of Tennessee, SCV

WHEREAS, the approach of the Sesquicentennial will be a time to educate not only the people of these United States but of the world; and

WHEREAS, the most recognized symbol of the Confederate States is the Battle Flag, a flag each of us hold dear; and

WHEREAS, the use of the Confederate Battle Flag by extremist political groups and individuals who seek to clothe themselves in respectability by misappropriating the banner under which our southern ancestors fought for a Just Cause which is as noble as much latter day is ignoble; and

WHEREAS, the Sons of Confederate Veterans are the true inheritors of legacy and symbols for which the Confederate Veterans fought and died; and WHEREAS, the Sons of Confederate Veterans does denounce the use of the Confederate Battle Flag and any other Confederate symbol by any hate group and/or the Ku Klux Klan as the desecration of a symbol to which any hate group and/or the Ku Klux Klan has no claim; and

WHEREAS, the misuse of the Confederate Battle Flag by any extremist group or individual espousing political extremism and/or racial superiority degrades the Confederate Battle Flag and maligns the noble purpose of our ancestors who fought against extreme odds for what they knew was just, right, and constitutional; and

WHEREAS, the misuse of other flags and symbols of the Confederate States of America and the Confederate States Army, Navy, and Marines is similarly degrading,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Sons of Confederate Veterans in General Convention assembled in Anderson, South Carolina, does hereby condemn in the strongest terms possible the use of the Confederate Battle Flag or any other flag, symbol, seal, title or name bearing any relationship whatsoever to the Confederate States of America or the armed forces of that Government by any such extremist group or individual, of whatever name or designation by which know, and

LET IT BE FUTHER RESOVLED, that the Sons of Confederate Veterans in General Convention assembled, does hereby condemn in the strongest terms possible the inappropriate use of the Confederate Battle Flag or any other flag, seal, title or name bearing any relationship whatsoever to the Confederate States of America or the armed forces of that Government of the Confederate States of America by individuals or groups of individuals, organized or unorganized, who espouse political extremism or racial superiority and that this resolution shall be made known to all media outlets now and throughout the years of the Sesquicentennial and it shall be made patent and entered into the permanent records and archives of the General Headquarters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans at Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee.